DotCommunist
So many particulars. So many questions.
oh snap- netflix for you to?
What DVD / Video did you watch last night? (pt3)
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Reno
The In Kraut
The Death of Superman Lives, one of several recent documentaries about films which never happened (see also Jodorowsky's Dune and Lost Soul: The Doomed Journey of Richard Stanley's The Island of Dr Moreau) and the least interesting. The proposed Tim Burton take on Superman sounds wacky but nowhere near as intriguing as Dune and the production troubles were comparatively mundane when compared to the insanity which was the Dr Moreau shoot.
TheHoodedClaw
acknowledging ur soup leg
Finally finished The West Wing. A tremendous piece of work all-in-all, a bit of a dip post-Sorkin, but it rallied nicely to the end. And because I'm a sap, Josh and Donna YAY!
Ted Striker
Foot's on the other hand
True Story...Utterly bizarre premise of a thriller with absolutely nothing to enthrall the viewer and an entirely manufactured supposed wrongdoing that no one really cares about.
DotCommunist
So many particulars. So many questions.
I've always wondered what could have been with jodorowsky's Dune. In the docu I loved him recounting gleefuly how he went to see Lynch's version and it was awful, despite having said Lynch was a worthy auter to do it, he still saw what the rest of us did- its rubbish. Despite the bits that do work (I think the gom jabbar scene is especially effective, and the whole 'the sleeper must awaken' speech by Leto.)
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The Octagon
Stop...Hammertime
Terminator Genisys.
It's pretty bad. Not unwatchable, but close.
The future war scenes are pretty good in fairness, it's always nice to watch Skynet get smashed and see the timey wimey bollocks stuff.
But then...
Emilia Clarke is not convincing as Sarah Connor and Jai Courtney doesn't even try to recreate Michael Biehn's Kyle Reese (even though he should be exactly the same in terms of weariness / PTSD, not wisecracking and flirty
). The revisit to scenes from the original film are interesting but feel sacrilegious 
Ahnuld behaves like Ahnuld doing an impression of a Terminator, complete with stupid facial expressions and corny one-liners. Sarah calls him "Pops". Ugh. At this point I knew it was going to be a long 2 hours.
The most original idea in the film was inexplicably spoiled in the Trailers
, the action scenes don't have any tension or physicality, everything is strangely bloodless (PG13 rating for a Terminator film, fuck off) and the T1000, iconic in T2, is now for some reason inept and unable to kill someone standing right in front of them because....reasons?
Bad writing, bad directing, bad casting.
Might watch T1 for the first time in ages though, so it technically achieved something.
It's pretty bad. Not unwatchable, but close.
The future war scenes are pretty good in fairness, it's always nice to watch Skynet get smashed and see the timey wimey bollocks stuff.
But then...
Emilia Clarke is not convincing as Sarah Connor and Jai Courtney doesn't even try to recreate Michael Biehn's Kyle Reese (even though he should be exactly the same in terms of weariness / PTSD, not wisecracking and flirty
). The revisit to scenes from the original film are interesting but feel sacrilegious Ahnuld behaves like Ahnuld doing an impression of a Terminator, complete with stupid facial expressions and corny one-liners. Sarah calls him "Pops". Ugh. At this point I knew it was going to be a long 2 hours.
The most original idea in the film was inexplicably spoiled in the Trailers
, the action scenes don't have any tension or physicality, everything is strangely bloodless (PG13 rating for a Terminator film, fuck off) and the T1000, iconic in T2, is now for some reason inept and unable to kill someone standing right in front of them because....reasons?Bad writing, bad directing, bad casting.
Might watch T1 for the first time in ages though, so it technically achieved something.
Idris2002
canadian girlfriend
Another point on this one - it had an excellent cast, including Christina Hendricks (whom it took me a while to recognise) at the top of her game. She was streets ahead of anything she's done in glorified soap Mad Men.
As for the two leads, they'll definitely go far.
trabuquera
Modesty Bag
Snitch (2013) - an exercise in having your lame-brained action movie and eating your social-justice indie film with it. My new favourite screen human, Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson is an ordinary working dad (yeah right) who must rescue his milksop led-astray son, who's stupidly got embroiled with a school ecstasy-dealing ring, from a very long stretch in prison, by going undercover to expose some big fish Mexican coke cartel capos. It's all wildly improbable and not very well written but it does have an absolutely cracking cast (apart from Mr The Rock there are also fantastic Michael K Williams, partially reviving the legend of Omar; Benjamin Bratt as a capo; Barry Pepper looks brilliant and cadaverous as a DEA agent with a scary meth-cook beard, and well-known pinko Susan Sarandon doing a great turn as an utterly amoral DA who just uses Mr The Rock as a very chunky bit of murder-bait.)
So far, so standard, but it's interesting for its oddly liberal bent (it is fundamentally a protest movie about the injustice of mandatory-minimum drug sentencing, and the abuse of informants by all sides) and weirdly understated in what it actually SHOWS. Not your standard crash-bang-wallop-rat-a-tat tale: there are plentiful hints at prison rape, acid baths and unmarked graves for cartel victims - but there's no torturing and surprisingly little gunplay or murdering on screen. The "action" is just a bit crunchy rather than well over-the-top pyrotechnic. So it's sort of Taken, only without the torture porn, and the state/the police/the justice system are the bad guys. So is it worth watching then? One day it might end up being seen as a minor subversive genre classic, like They Live. It really is not a great film but it's a lot quirkier than you might expect.
So far, so standard, but it's interesting for its oddly liberal bent (it is fundamentally a protest movie about the injustice of mandatory-minimum drug sentencing, and the abuse of informants by all sides) and weirdly understated in what it actually SHOWS. Not your standard crash-bang-wallop-rat-a-tat tale: there are plentiful hints at prison rape, acid baths and unmarked graves for cartel victims - but there's no torturing and surprisingly little gunplay or murdering on screen. The "action" is just a bit crunchy rather than well over-the-top pyrotechnic. So it's sort of Taken, only without the torture porn, and the state/the police/the justice system are the bad guys. So is it worth watching then? One day it might end up being seen as a minor subversive genre classic, like They Live. It really is not a great film but it's a lot quirkier than you might expect.
Orang Utan
Psychick Worrier Ov Geyoor
David Duchovny. Mulder is the character he plays in X-Files.
Reno
The In Kraut
North West Frontier from 1959 with Kenneth More and Lauren Bacall. A Sunday afternoon favourite when I was a kid, this is still a cracking adventure film. It's really a Western set in India with extremist Muslims instead of Native Americans and it's one of the great films set on a train. I had not watched this in thirty years and while culturally and politically of its time (though anti-imperialist sentiments are voiced, only to get shouted down by the British characters) this still holds up very well with well timed perils and action scenes. Not as well remembered as it should be.
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Reno
The In Kraut
I just failed yet again to re-watch all of the first Star Wars. Haven't managed to sit through the whole film since the mid-80s and gave up after 40 minutes. Fuck, the thing is boring and one dimensional and it really doesn't hold up unlike some other blockbusters of the 70s (of course millions disagree). As a special effects bonanza it doesn't wow anymore, the characters are as flat as can be and two of the three lead actors are absolutely dire. Of course the 90s CGI added too spruce up the effects has dated horribly and just makes everything worse. The new Star Wars trailers looked quite cool, so I thought I'd give it another try but I still don't get it.
DotCommunist
So many particulars. So many questions.
Ill Manors- vile exploitative shit, really a new nadir for this type of film
Kingsmen- seen before. Nice line in ultraviolence
Kingsmen- seen before. Nice line in ultraviolence
TheHoodedClaw
acknowledging ur soup leg
Idris2002
canadian girlfriend
The Small Back Room (Powell and Pressburger 1949).
Stiff upper-lippery among the wartime boffins. Jerry is dropping new booby-trapped bombs, and it takes a special kind of man to work out how to defuse them safely. And it takes a special kind of woman to put up with his nonsense, until she tells him she's not going to put up with it any longer.
"Dieselpunk" avant la lettre, but also very noirish. If you loved The Third Man, you'll like this, though actually it reminded me a bit more of Odd Man Out.
The Small Back Room - strongly recommended.
Also features "Sidney James", who is none other than the great Sid J. of Carry On fame himself.
Stiff upper-lippery among the wartime boffins. Jerry is dropping new booby-trapped bombs, and it takes a special kind of man to work out how to defuse them safely. And it takes a special kind of woman to put up with his nonsense, until she tells him she's not going to put up with it any longer.
"Dieselpunk" avant la lettre, but also very noirish. If you loved The Third Man, you'll like this, though actually it reminded me a bit more of Odd Man Out.
The Small Back Room - strongly recommended.
Also features "Sidney James", who is none other than the great Sid J. of Carry On fame himself.
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hot air baboon
Well-Known Member
Idris2002
canadian girlfriend
...you and your sub-genre's...
Just like Jules Verne was "steampunk avant la lettre":
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dieselpunk
TSBR has a subplot about a new gun the boffins are testing for HM forces - in other hands that could have been the kind of novum that sci-fi writers (in any sub-genre) use as the macguffin to hang their wider plots on.
http://www.dieselpunks.org
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belboid
Exasperated, not angry.
A great and much underrated film. Small role for Patrick Macnee as well.
Idris2002
canadian girlfriend
I thought I saw a strangely familiar face in there, yes.
rekil
to menny cranks
I tried watching Ted 2 and Trainwreck but nether lasted more than half and hour. Shit. Then I gave Vacation a go because Charlie Day and Kaitlin Olson have small parts but it's not going well. Yet another of these comedies where the word "vagina" is supposed to be a gag.
The39thStep
Urban critical thinker
In a better world Charlie Day and Kathleen Olson would be leading actors
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